Putin swears mutinous Wagner leaders ‘will be brought to justice’ in first speech since attempted coup

“The organizers of this rebellion have betrayed the people who were dragged into this organization.”

But Putin said the same offer would not be extended to its leadership and that the Kremlin will be thinking “about these people who actually decided to do this, to make this step, which would have had tragic and devastating consequences for the country, for Russia as a whole.”

He praised the Russian people for displaying the kind of “solidarity that shows that any kind of blackmail is doomed to failure.”

He said the uprising was what “Kyiv and the West wanted — they wanted the Russian soldiers to kill each other.”

Putin’s message appeared to be the death knell for the particularly ruthless Wagner Group, yet he also expressed thanks to the mercenary leaders for halting before reaching Moscow and inciting violence.

“I would like to thank those commanders and soldiers of the Wagner Group who took the right decision to stop and go back and prevent bloodshed,” he said.

But even before Putin’s speech, experts said Prigozhin was already a “dead man walking.”

Ian Bremmer, president of the geopolitical risk firm Eurasia Group, said it is clear that Prigozhin will be executed over his attempted coup.

“Putin has imprisoned and assassinated people for far less than what Prigozhin has done to him,” Bremmer told CNBC’s Squawk Box Asia. “It’s inconceivable to me that Putin will allow him to live any longer than is absolutely necessary.”

Bremmer labeled Prigozhin a “dead man walking” as former Russian army leader and intelligence officer Igor Girkin added on Telegram, “I don’t think that all Wagner commanders and fighters deserve to be shot.

“But to hang ‘Cook’ for the rebellion and the murder of our officers is simply necessary for the preservation of Russia as a state,” he wrote, referring to Prigozhin’s nickname as “Putin’s Chef” over the lucrative government catering contracts he has landed.